After adding over 702,000 new cases throughout the last week, the U.S. now has more than 81.9 million confirmed cases of COVID-19. There have been more than 990,000 COVID-19-related deaths — the highest death toll of any country.

New cases continue to rise at a faster rate. In the past week, there were an average of 26.7 daily new coronavirus cases per 100,000 Americans — an increase from the week prior, when there were an average of 20.3 daily new coronavirus cases per 100,000 people.

While COVID-19 has spread to nearly every part of the country, cities continue to be the sites of major outbreaks. Experts agree that the virus is more likely to spread in group settings where large numbers of people routinely have close contact with one another, such as colleges, nursing homes, bars, and restaurants. Metropolitan areas with a high degree of connectivity between neighborhoods and a large population may be particularly at-risk.

In the 50 largest metro areas, the incidence of coronavirus grew at an average rate of 28.9 new cases a day per 100,000 residents in the past week — 15.1% greater than the case growth in all counties outside of metro areas.

The Omaha-Council Bluffs, NE-IA, metro area consists of Douglas County, Sarpy County, Pottawattamie County, and five other counties. In the past week, there were an average of 6.7 new coronavirus cases every day per 100,000 Omaha residents, less than the national figure. The metro area’s average daily case growth in the most recent week is essentially unchanged from the week prior, when there was an average of 4.7 daily new cases per 100,000 Omaha residents.

The spread of coronavirus depends on a variety of factors and can vary even between neighboring counties. Within the Omaha-Council Bluffs metro area, COVID-19 is growing the fastest in Cass County. There were an average of 28.3 new cases per day per 100,000 residents in Cass County during the past week, the most of the eight counties in Omaha with available data.

Case growth in the Omaha metro area varies widely at the county level. In Mills County, for example, there were an average of 1.9 new cases per day per 100,000 residents in the past week — the least of any county in Omaha and far more than the case growth rate in Cass County.

While Cass County is driving the growth of COVID-19 in the Omaha area, it does not have the highest incidence of cases overall. As of May 19, there were a total of 23,775.5 confirmed cases per 100,000 residents in Cass County, the fifth most of the eight counties in the metro area. For comparison, the U.S. has so far reported 25,247.6 cases per 100,000 Americans nationwide.

The pandemic has led to the closure of thousands of consumer-facing businesses around the country. These changes have led to widespread job loss and record unemployment. In Cass County, unemployment peaked at 8.5% in April 2020. As of June 2021, the county’s unemployment rate was 2.9%.

To determine the county in every metropolitan area where COVID-19 is growing the fastest, 24/7 Wall St. compiled and reviewed data from state and local health departments. We ranked counties according to the average number of new daily COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents in the seven days ending May 19. To estimate the incidence of COVID-19 at the metropolitan level, we aggregated data up from the county level using boundary definitions from the U.S. Census Bureau. Population data used to adjust case and death totals came from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2019 American Community Survey and are five-year estimates. Unemployment data is from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and is not seasonally adjusted.

These are all the counties in Nebraska where COVID-19 is slowing (and where it’s still getting worse).

Rank in MSA	County	Population	New daily cases per 100,000, week ending May 19	New daily cases per 100,000, week ending May 12	Cumulative cases per 100,000	Cumulative deaths per 100,000
1	Cass County	25,888	28.3	17.7	23,775.5	150.6
2	Douglas County	560,617	8.0	5.7	26,920.9	184.1
3	Sarpy County	181,232	7.2	4.1	27,536.0	141.3
4	Pottawattamie County	93,393	5.4	3.5	26,106.9	341.6
5	Washington County	20,361	2.7	5.2	22,528.4	221.0
6	Saunders County	21,165	2.3	2.4	23,751.5	141.7
7	Harrison County	14,089	2.0	0.0	24,394.9	674.3
8	Mills County	15,034	1.9	5.7	22,382.6	272.7

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